I have a Cyrus III with PSX-R teamed up with a pair of Acoustic Energy AE-1 speakers. Together this combination is capable of terrific imaging and accuracy. Of course its a little hard to tell how much is the amp, how much is the speaker and how much is the room. I compared the amp with the Audiolab 8000a?, the Arcam 290B and the less expensive Pioneer A400 when I bought it, and felt that the Cyrus offered the best imaging and overall a more realistic and enjoyable sound.
Adding the PSX-R didn't give as much extra oomph as I was hoping, and seemed to make the most difference to the quality of the depth imaging. The combination seems to be powerful enough for the AE-1s, which are fairly insensitive, but they do get close to clipping at high volumes in a larger room.

Overall I'm very happy with the amp. Having the remote control is a real plus for changing volume. I'd like to add a Cyrus power amp and bi-amp in the future.

My cyrusIII and PSX just cost me less than $900(it's not a second hand),because i bought them at a store that was busting and on sale!

Balance, detail, separation

I'm not rich enough to upgrade to PSX-R

I recently bought the III with a Cyrus dAD 3 CD player second hand from Lintone Audio (650 UK £ for the pair)

I auditioned these against my existing system and an Arcam setup. After listening to the Cyrus, I couldn't bear the Arcam, after the Cyrus it sounded far too harsh and uninviting.

I have been more surprised also when I got home and plugged the two into my Mission M74s, the bass is incredible, while not drowning out the vocals and the treble detailing is immense. Top Notch.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam/Cambridge Audio systems

Overall sound, build

Switch off thump

I have used the Cyrus 3 with a Cyrus DAD3 CD player and before that a Marantz CD63SE. With both it sounded very open, accurate and deep but clean with a good sense of depth. When I changed to the Cyrus DAD3 it didn't dissapoint and showed readily the improvements over the other player (which is still very good at the price by the way...) Now I use it with a DAD3Q and a Cyrus Power (at the moment pre/power but when I modify my crossovers i'll be using it biamped) and the way in which the performance can be continually stepped up from middling hi-fi to high-end without having to sell components in-between time and loose money is a major plus point that should'nt be ignored. The dynamics, especially with the Cyrus Power, are particularily impressive for such a conservatively powered amp with quite a small (180va) power supply. Overall I like the presentation, it's balanced with deep but clean bass and a well projected but not harsh (unless your speakers are that way) but revealing sound. The stereo imagery and seperation is excellently crisp, though I have to say the front to back depth is'nt quite the best i've heard, though i'm talking comparisons with Krell and Chord amps here.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam alpha9, Copland integrated, Krell 300i etc